


Worth

by Pickwick12



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Maldrisa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28577211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pickwick12/pseuds/Pickwick12
Summary: An ugly breakup sends Edrisa to work to drown her sorrows in a stack of paperwork. She doesn't realize Malcolm Bright also likes to spend the occasional Saturday in the office finishing case reports. Sometimes endings can also be beginnings.(One-shot for now. I might continue it or write another, longer fic for this ship if people like this.)
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Edrisa Tanaka, Malcolm Bright/Edrisa Tanaka
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Worth

“You know, you’re really weird.” Mark got up from the table, not paying his half of the bill, as usual. Consistent to the end. 

“If we’re having one of those brutally honest breakups, then you’re not actually that smart.” Mark blanched at this, visibly stung, but his reaction didn’t give Edrisa the lingering satisfaction she’d hoped it would. It just made her feel gross. "You’re really not cut out to be a mean girl," she said to herself. 

After taking care of the bill and leaving a generous tip, Edrisa checked her watch. It was only 10:27 a.m., and she had an entire Saturday to fill. It was certainly like Mark to pick brunch for a breakup. Why ruin just one meal when he could ruin an entire day?

Finding herself headed to work was basically inevitable. She didn’t have a pressing case, but there was always work that needed to be done and cold cases she could look over—anything to take her mind off Mark and what had gone wrong.

"You are weird," she thought to herself, but weird was what she had always been, and Mark had signed on for it. Until—until he got tired of it, and until she was too much. This was not a positive train of thought to follow, so as soon as Edrisa got to the office, she started on paperwork she hated. It was tedious, boring stuff, but it required concentration that kept her mind off other things.

To a point.

She had actually liked Mark. It hadn’t mattered to her that he wasn’t as smart as she was or as smart as he thought he was. He’d been nice. At first. Wasn’t that how they all were, though? She forced herself to focus on her tasks at hand. "Get it together, Edrisa. Nobody else is going to get it for you."

Most of the time, she felt like all the excessive departmental paperwork was next to pointless. But this was the one good purpose it served—to give her an escape. She worked steadily for two hours, mostly able to keep herself from dwelling on the breakup and the echoing self-doubts it brought back to her mind.

Edrisa had her office door nearly closed, but after two hours had passed, she heard the faint sound of shoes on the hallway floor. She dreaded seeing anyone, not wanting to give up the serene emptiness in her part of the building. Probably, they would pass on by.

Except, they didn’t. A light tap on her door was immediately followed by the face of Malcolm Bright peeking in, followed by his light frame dressed in jeans and a sweater. He was carrying two to go cups. “Coffee, Edrisa?” He smiled.

She stared at him for a few seconds. “Bright, if your abilities extend to somehow prophesying that I was going to come here today and need coffee, then we’re beyond science and into sorcery…Or else you know Mark, in which case I feel bad for you.”

Bright shook his head. “Saw your car in parking, so when I walked over to the cafe to do my coffee run, I got one for you, too. But who’s Mark?”

Edrisa felt herself blushing. “Nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing. Why don’t you come have coffee with me in the staff lounge? My report will wait, and you probably need a break.” Edrisa got up and followed him. She wasn’t going to say no to Malcolm Bright. She wasn’t really sure how anybody ever said no to him, to be truthful. 

“O—okay,” she said.

As usual, the lounge was dingy. Somebody had commandeered most of the uncomfortable chairs for an office meeting and hadn’t brought them back, so the doctor and the profiler sat side by side in the two remaining ones that were pulled up to the rusty table.

“So who’s Mark?” Bright wasn’t letting go of it. 

“He’s the guy who broke up with me over scrambled eggs this morning.”

“Oh.” Bright looked over at her, sympathy in his huge blue eyes.

“Don’t feel too bad for me. He said I was weird; I said he was dumb. Not exactly mature, but true, and definitely satisfying—for the three seconds until the guilt set in.” Edrisa laughed, but stared down at her black coffee, not meeting those eyes again. 

“I’m sorry,” Bright said. “Or am I? You tell me. Not all breakups are bad.”

Edrisa shrugged. “He took advantage of me. I’m not sorry he’s gone. I’m sorry he did it, and I didn’t. I should have cut it off months ago.”

“So why didn’t you?” Edrisa fiddled with the hem of her button down shirt, thinking. She didn’t mind Bright asking, even though it forced her to wade into emotional territory she preferred to avoid. Somehow, she felt less afraid to go there with Bright next to her, anchoring her, than she did when she was alone.

“I, um—I was a pushover in school. You know? I always had allowance money, and I would lend it to the other kids, even though they never paid it back. It was the one time they noticed me. The rest of the time they just said I was weird and went off into their cliques.”

“Mark was like that, but I didn’t realize it for a long time. When I met him, he didn’t have a job, but he said he’d had one a couple of months before. He was an engineer, not a very good one. But he was nice. I didn’t mind paying for everything because he was sweet. Nothing ever changed, and after a few months, he wasn’t even nice any more. He just expected me to support him.”

She could feel Bright’s eyes on her and see him nodding out of the corner of her eye, but she still didn’t look at him. She closed into herself, folding her arms around her, not used to making personal disclosures to anyone, let alone somebody she liked and found attractive.

“Like the kids at school,” Bright said softly.

“Like the kids at school,” she echoed. “At least, when I gave them money, they didn’t completely leave me out. And Mark—stuck around for a while. What hurt this morning was him saying I’m too much for even the money to make it worth him staying. At least it worked with sixth graders.” She laughed, but she could hear the brittle edge in her own voice. 

Bright put a warm hand on her shoulder. “Edrisa, you’re worth so much more than that.”

“It’s give and take, right?” she shot back. “If you’re too much for most people, you compensate by giving them what they want. Maybe it’s like paying a tax to keep from being alone in the world. There are worse things than that, right?”

“I know how it is to feel like you’re too much,” Bright answered, “to feel like you have to do more and give more than other people, because otherwise you don’t deserve anything.”

“You?” She laughed, the same brittle laugh as before. “You’re handsome and charming. You have EQ that rivals Gil’s. Everybody likes you.”

“Do they?” he asked softly. Edrisa, when I was a kid, my mom sent me to five different psychiatrists. The therapist I have now treats children, and she only sees me because I won’t leave. I can’t even count how many nights I kept Gil from sleeping, because my mother would call him when I had nightmares, and he would drive me around the city in his patrol car. As an adult, I’ve scared off more dates than I can count.”

“But none of that was your fault,” she argued. “You were traumatized.”

“I know that now,” he agreed, “or, at least, I’m in the process of learning it. But it took a long time. Just because something isn’t your fault doesn’t mean you stop feeling responsible for it. Know what I mean?”

“I don’t understand,” she said honestly. “My father wasn’t a serial killer.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, either,” he said gently, his hand still resting lightly on her shoulder. “You’ve never owed anything to anybody for putting up with you. Not those kids who were afraid of somebody who was different—smarter—than they were. And not some jerk named Mark who wanted a meal ticket without commitment. You’re allowed to be you, and that’s more than enough.”

To her horror, Edrisa felt tears springing to the surface, and she quickly tried to blink them away, but when that failed, she hastily took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry, Bright. You’re just—a really good psychologist. This kind of stuff doesn’t usually even work on me.”

Bright removed his hand from her shoulder and wiped away the tear that was tracking down her cheek. “Edrisa, I’m not trying to be your therapist. I’m just trying to be your friend.” As soon as he said that, she realized she couldn’t keep the tears in any longer, but it was okay. It was okay because Bright hugged her.

As things with Mark had gotten increasingly awful, she had let herself imagine having a closer relationship with Bright, but it had never been like this. In her imagination, she had always been on her game, in control, with her best foot forward and her uglier, weirder parts hidden. She had never in a million years imagined that he would find her at her most vulnerable. 

“I’m ruining your designer sweater,” she mumbled from against his shoulder. 

“It’s okay,” he said, just holding her, “you’re worth it.”

After a while, once her sobs had died down, Bright gently let go and handed her a Kleenex. “Should I apologize?” he asked. “I wasn’t planning to be another dumb guy who invaded your space today.”

“Dumb? You’re joking, right? You have one of the most interesting minds I’ve ever encountered. Your high IQ and EQ are in perfect balance.” 

Bright smiled. “Compared to you, I’m not that smart, Edrisa. You’re more than a genius.” He actually sounded like this was a good thing, not a reason to ridicule her or feel intimidated by her. It was—unusual. Refreshing.

“That felt like a compliment,” she said, hoping she wasn’t wrong.

“It was,” he answered.

She felt herself blushing again, like she was all of fifteen, and she laughed. “You have a great way of making me forget to act like a normal adult.”

“Adulthood is overrated,” he answered. 

“Thank you, Bright,” she said, finally meeting his eyes again. “Thanks for—all of this.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, holding her gaze confidently. “I’d like to get to know you better, Edrisa, if that’s something you want.”

She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “Of—of course I want that.”

“Then it’s settled,” he answered, getting up and pushing his chair back up under the table. 

“Settled,” she echoed, not exactly sure what she had agreed to, but absolutely sure that if it included Malcolm Bright, it would be more than worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of the only shows I've ever watched in which I feel like there are multiple plausible ships. Tom Payne could probably have chemistry with wallpaper, if asked, and Malcolm is just a ridiculously lovable character. The show obviously plays a lot of scenes with Edrisa for comedy, but at the same time, she's a sensible and successful, mature woman who has intellect and interests in common with Malcolm that no one else on the team shares. 
> 
> I hope this one-shot feels in character. Overall, I feel like Prodigal Son is a win-win situation. I'm not going to be upset by whatever ship they choose to go with (if they go there at all), but there's a very special place in my heart for Edrisa and Malcolm together. I believe that each possible pairing would be rich in its own respects, but Edrisa and Malcolm have the potential to give each other freedom to be exactly who they are, as unusual or childlike as it might be, without shame, and that's something I would love for both of them.


End file.
